Pennsylvania!! Unite!!

[chiques chicks]

Hey everyone, I'm still alive Are anyone's girls picking up on production? I've been skimming, but I skipped 5 pages... I really want to start collecting eggs soon for the Easter HAL but no one is showing any signs of it yet.

I'm getting about 6 a day out of about 30 birds.

Was surprised there was still a utile moisture in the water bowls today. All of mine were anxious to come out for fresh food and water.

The Swedish flowers have been out all day. They really don't seem bothered by the cold, they come out in all weather, dedicatedly seem like a good farmstead bird other than their somewhat smaller size, not a lot of meat for that purpose. And the fact they only lay about every other day, but they have continued laying at least some all winter, 3-4 a at out of about a dozen of them.

 

[AnneInTheBurbs]

Hey everyone, I'm still alive Are anyone's girls picking up on production? I've been skimming, but I skipped 5 pages... I really want to start collecting eggs soon for the Easter HAL but no one is showing any signs of it yet.

I got four eggs today out of my girls, it was a good day. In general I have definitely seen an uptick in egg laying.

 

[troyer]

Do you think shes deficient in calcium?

I think it's probably egg shell calcium. I'm not an expert on all the varieties of calcium, I just know what worked for me last spring with a 4 year old hen that someone had given to me. This person told me that he had not gotten any eggs from her the previous year, but was willing to give her to me and see if I can get her to lay eggs. I found out that she was eating her eggs, hence the reason my friend thought she wasn't laying, she would lay her egg and immediately turn around and eat it. I decided to put some eggs in a feed dish and watch her to see if I can determine what she's actually after as I was starting to think she was after the shell and not the yolks. I put 3 whole (in the shell) eggs into her feed dish and stood there and watched her. She promptly broke an egg and instead of going for the yolk like they normally do she ate the shell, as soon as she was done with the first egg she broke the second one and ate that shell also, she ate all the shells and left the yolks. It seemed like a light went on in my brain. We have as a rule always fed our egg shells back to our hens, dried and toasted/roasted. We immediately gave her a cup of dried crushed egg shells. In three days she ate one whole cup of the dried egg shell. We kept the shells available to her as free choice. I cannot guarantee this method to be fool proof, it just worked for me.
3 days after we fed her the dried toasted shells she quit eating her own eggs, she then proceeded to lay 12 eggs, became broody and hatched all 12.

I tried a lot of other supposably fool proof methods that people told me about, but for this hen none of those worked.

 

[stake]

Hey everyone, I'm still alive

Are anyone's girls picking up on production? I've been skimming, but I skipped 5 pages... I really want to start collecting eggs soon for the Easter HAL but no one is showing any signs of it yet.

Chippy:

I am getting a few eggs but not many, and I don't remember seeing the roos are covering the girls lately....

 

[OneMountainAcres]

We're getting an average of 6 a day from our girls. We have 14 that are of age and 6 that are starting to squat. I can't wait until those spring days where I get over a dozen eggs in a day again

I also haven't seen my roo covering the girls at all but every egg I've cracked open has been fertile. He must be being discrete lol. He's doing a good job keeping all the girls fertile even though the ratio is off. I'm wondering if he'll still be able to keep it up once the new girls come into lay.

 

[grandpaw roo]

Spring IS around the corner! Just called Tractor Supply and chicks come in on the 23rd of Feb!

 

[cmf12230]

Spring IS around the corner! Just called Tractor Supply and chicks come in on the 23rd of Feb!

Ha I also just called and was told that! I have 24 chicks that are a week old in the brooder and logically think it's a good idea to wait till they no longer need the heat lamp but yet I'm calling to see when the chicks come in!! And I know unless I go to get feed this week instead of next I will be coming home with new chicks.

 

[OneMountainAcres]

Spring IS around the corner! Just called Tractor Supply and chicks come in on the 23rd of Feb!

Ha I also just called and was told that! I have 24 chicks that are a week old in the brooder and logically think it's a good idea to wait till they no longer need the heat lamp but yet I'm calling to see when the chicks come in!! And I know unless I go to get feed this week instead of next I will be coming home with new chicks.

1 week already?! Last year, I remember that it seemed like it took forever for them to get chicks in. Mostly because I was dying to get my first chicks but still. I'm going to get in big trouble if I bring any home from TSC seeing as how I already have a bunch in the brooder, the incubators running and more hatching eggs ordered lol!

ETA: then again, I did tell hubby about some of the deals some of you have pulled to get a lot of chicks cheap. He's not against me doing that for meaties haha!

 

[Jedwards]

Shout out from Berks County!

 

[GR Chicks]

All of my spring pullets have been going strong. I'm getting about 2 dzn a day with 30 girls.